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Industry & Manufacturing

The Museum's collections document centuries of remarkable changes in products, manufacturing processes, and the role of industry in American life. In the bargain, they preserve artifacts of great ingenuity, intricacy, and sometimes beauty.

The carding and spinning machinery built by Samuel Slater about 1790 helped establish the New England textile industry. Nylon-manufacturing machinery in the collections helped remake the same industry more than a century later. Machine tools from the 1850s are joined by a machine that produces computer chips. Thousands of patent models document the creativity of American innovators over more than 200 years.

The collections reach far beyond tools and machines. Some 460 episodes of the television series Industry on Parade celebrate American industry in the 1950s. Numerous photographic collections are a reminder of the scale and even the glamour of American industry.

This blue and black lenticular card has a ruler along the top edge. When viewed at one angle, a centimeter ruler is divided to millimeters and numbered by ones from 1 to 15. Below the ruler is a table for rivet code numbers, with row headings POP TAP, POP TLP, and IMEX. From another angle, a six-inch ruler is divided to 1/32" and numbered by ones from 1 to 6. Below the ruler is a table for riveting thickness, with row headings POP ALUM, POP MONEL, and IMEX.

British engineer Hamilton Neil Wylie invented blind or pop rivets between 1916 and 1927. They may be installed in situations where the body (such as an aircraft) or building being assembled may be accessed from only one side. Introduced in 1955, Imex rivets are sealed on one side. While both terms are now in common use, Pop and Imex were originally brand names used by the George Tucker Eyelet Company of Birmingham, England. The rivet metals in the table include aluminum and Monel, a nickel alloy trademarked by Special Metals Corporation of New Hartford, N.Y.

The donor found this object in a used book he bought at Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif., in 1976. The back has several pen and pencil marks, including: 4.11.74; James Ramkinson; S; India Education Trust (/) Dod[illegible]nt Avenue; M. Rodrigues.

Reference: "The History of Stanley Engineered Fastening in Europe," http://www.emhart.eu/eu-en/about-emhart/history.php.

Until Charles A. Spencer began making microscopes in Canastota, New York, in 1838, the only high-quality microscopes available in the United States were imported from Europe. Spencer gained fame among American scientists for his fine objective lenses, which provided stronger magnification and sharper resolution than many European models. This brass monocular microscope, equipped with a mirror to reflect light through the slide, could be used with either a compound or a simple lens.

The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 contributed to the establishment of numerous stoneware factories in towns such as Utica, New York. The White family first began making utilitarian pottery in Utica in 1834, and started using molds and steam-powered pottery wheels in the 1870s, expanding the types of wares they could produce. By the late 1800s, they were known for their relief molded wares, such as this stein.

The salt-glazed stoneware tradition in America was brought to this country by immigrants from Central Europe. Potters in the New World used decorating techniques developed in Germany and other European countries, such as pictorial incising and cobalt painting, as seen the incised bird on this jug made by John Remmey III.

This patent model demonstrates an invention for a mold that made blocks that were used in printing carpets or wall paper; the invention was granted patent number 10630. The design, formed of short and long pieces of type, was set up in a square casting box. The printing block was then cast in any suitable material such as type metal, plaster-of-paris, vulcanized rubber, or, by preference, gutta percha - a popular material in the mid nineteenth century.

This patent model demonstrates an invention for a shooting stick, used for driving in quoins, or wedges, to tighten a form in its chase; the invention was granted patent number 107154. These sticks had different-sized notches to fit different quoins, and two wings to help open spaces for the quoins among the furniture.

This patent model demonstrates an invention for a metallograph, and was granted patent number 215792. With this tool, a writer could turn a sheet of metal into a printing plate as he wrote on it. The air-powered writing instrument made a series of sharp blows to the metal, knocking out projections on the back of the sheet. The projections formed a facsimile of the writing in reverse and in relief for printing at a type press.